SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Voluspd 123
Inspiration nannten? Im andren Falle will ich's beschreiben.
- Mit dem geringsten Rest von Aberglauben in sich wiirde
man in der That die Vorstellung, bloss Incarnation, bloss
Mundstiick, bloss Medium ubermachtiger Gewalten zu sein,
abzuweisenwissen. Der Begriff Offenbarung, in dem Sinn, dass
plotzlich, mit unsogicher Sicherheit und Feinheit, Etwas
sichtbar, horbar wird, Etwas, das Einen im Tiefsten erschiittert
und umwirft, beschreibt einfach den Thatbestand. Man hort,
man sucht nicht; man nimmt, man fragt nicht, wer da giebt;
wie ein Blitz leuchtet ein Gedanke auf, mit Notwendigkeit, in
der Form ohne Zogern - ich habe nie eine Wahl gehabt ...
Alles geschieht im hochsten Grade unfreiwillig, aber wie in
einem Sturme von Freiheits-Gefiihl, von Unbedingtsein, von
Macht, von Cottlichkeit ... Die Unfreiwilligkeit des Bildes, des
Gleichnisses ist das Merkwiirdigste; man hat keinen Begriff
mehr; was Bild, was Gleichniss ist, Alles bietet sich als der
nachste, der richtigste, der einfachste Ausdruck.s"
At such a temporal crossroads as occurred in Iceland in
A.D. lOOO it was as if the nation held its breath, and no one
can wonder that people were keener of perception then
than normally, so that they could notice these wavemotions
which are normally drowned in the noise of daily
life. Olafs saga Tryggvasonar hin mesta tells the following
story:
One day at :Pvotta, :P6rhallr the prophet was staying with Hallr.
Hallr lay in his bed, and :P6rhallr in another. And one
morning, when both were awake, :P6rhallr smiled. "Why do
you smile?" said Hallr. "I smile," answered :P6rhallr,
"because many a hillock is opening, and every living being in it,
88 F. Nietzsche, Ecce Homo in Werke (lgII), XV go-I. The authorised
English translation by A. M. Ludovici (in vol. 17 of the collected translation,
ed. Oscar Levy, Ig0g-II, repro Ig64, 101-2) renders this thus: "Has anyone
at the end of the nineteenth century any distinct notion of what poets of
a stronger age understood by the word inspiration? If not, I will describe it.
If one had the smallest vestige of superstition left in one, it would hardly be
possible completely to set aside the idea that one is the mere incarnation,
mouthpiece, or medium of an almighty power. The idea of revelation - in
the sense that something which profoundly convulses and upsets one becomes
suddenly visible and audible with indescribable certainty and accuracy - describes
the simple fact. One hears - one does not seek; one takes - one
does not ask who gives: a thought suddenly flashes up like lightning, it comes
with necessity, without faltering - I have never had any choice in the
matter. .. Everything happens quite involuntarily, as if in a tempestuous
outburst of freedom, of absoluteness, of power and divinity. The involuntary
nature of the figures and similes is the most remarkable thing; one loses all
perception of what is imagery and metaphor; everything seems to present
itself as the readiest, the truest, and simplest means of expression."